In the midst of Helene’s chaos, there was a moment of hope.
On September 27, David Hamner was rescued from his home in Rock Hill after being pinned down by a tree. As he was pulled from the wreckage, he gave a thumbs up from a stretcher.
A week later he gave the thumbs up again, this time after a miraculous recovery.
“There were a few times where I really thought this was the end, and [a firefighter] kept giving me the verbal confirmation that I needed to focus on breathing and keep fighting,” Hamner said.
PREVIOUS: 2 rescued after being trapped when tree fell on Rock Hill home
Now Hamner, a husband and father of three girls, has been out of the hospital for days. His home is a loss, but he is so grateful that he made it out alive and that he can walk and talk.
It took more than two hours to rescue him after the falling tree pinned him to his bed.
“I woke up and I was pinned down, the weight was pressing on me,” Hamner said. “I couldn’t breathe from the start.”
His wife managed to call 911 and emergency responders arrived. They got his wife to safety and started breaking through walls to get to him.
“All I could see was a hole in a wall,” Hamner said. “Once they found my head, they punched through it, made it bigger and were able to get an oxygen mask in there.”
He was still struggling to breathe and fighting the pain. He said a firefighter stayed nearby and cheered him on.
“At that time, breathing was so hard and so taxing, and I had been doing it for so long at that point,” Hamner said. “An hour and a half and just [breathing]that’s all I could do.
His 11-year-old and 5-year-old twin daughters worked to get out of the house. The twins climbed through a hole in the wall.
READ ALSO: FEMA assists storm victims in North and South Carolina
“They like some little squirrels,” Hamner said. ‘Slapped the branch through a hole in the wall and jumped to safety. And that’s so great. Another God thing.”
In one striking photo, he gave a thumbs up as crews finally removed him from that tree’s grasp.
“They thought I was dead several times, and if I wasn’t dead, my entire left side would be completely crushed,” Hamner said. “And by the grace of God, after tests, I walked out of the hospital without a broken bone.”
The family is staying in a hotel, but they are grateful to be together.
Hamner said he is looking forward to meeting the first responders who helped save him.
As you can imagine, the Hamners have a long way to go before they can get back home. If you want to help the Hamners, you can do the following:
-
Donate to their GoFundMe to help rebuild the Hamner home
-
Impact Church is helping coordinate long-term relief as their home is uninhabitable. Anyone wishing to donate/help can email rnelson@impactmycity.org.
(WATCH BELOW: SC firefighters die after tree falls on fire truck during Tropical Storm Helene)
